Earlier this year it was a very different story and patience became the watchword as the stock bumped along at historic lows – and those conversations became a little more difficult.

The response was to batten down the hatches and wait for those suitors to come a knocking rather than push the process to an unsatisfactory conclusion.

In doing this, the company cut costs to the bone, which made sure its cash ($12million at the last count) was able to stretch out to 2015.

The strategy appears to be paying off, with interest in the project picking up in recent weeks.Los Calatos isn’t a small project.

Analysts estimate it will cost $85million to complete both a pre-feasibility study and a feasibility study, as well as to conduct some additional exploration work.

Meanwhile, the initial pre-production capex required to build the project will be in the order of $1.3billion – which is hardly the sort of change one finds behind the sofa.

Even so, the interest is there and it is growing, Howe revealed.

'There is a whole sector that is comfortable with this sort of project, some of whom we have had contact with, and for that matter, entered appropriate confidentiality agreements,' he said.

'We are quite advanced, and there are people who are moving through the process quite quickly that could put pressure on the others.'

What’s also helped the process is the optimisation work unveiled last week that underscored the huge potential of Los Calatos.

METMINCO AT A GLANCE

AIM ticker: MNC

Value: £54million

Current price: 3.06p

Year high: 5.9p

Low: 0.68p

Annual production is now seen at 100,100 tonnes a year of copper and 5,000 tonnes of molybdenum in concentrate over a mine life of 34 years – an increase of 20 per cent and 35 per cent respectively by comparison the March 2013 scoping study.

Total tonnes mined jumped by 24 per cent to 811million tonnes due to higher conversion ratios of the current mineral resource.

But key has been the doubling of the lifespan of the lower cost open-pit to 14 years, before commencing underground production.

Throughout the conversation Howe and his head of investor relations, Steve Tainton, talk about turning Metminco into a producer, rather than just an explorer.

Los Calatos is some way from achieving that landmark. However, another of its projects, Mollacas, the smaller and more straightforward copper leach project in Chile, might just.

With an environmental impact assessment still to be complete, it is around two years and approximately $35million from being up and running.

However, the results of the current metallurgical study later this year will 'give some finality of whether we develop it or sell it', said Howe.

The Metminco managing director isn’t ruling out acquiring assets, or completing a merger of some kind that secures a cash generating projects.

'We want to add value. We want to add production,' said Howe.

Even at the current share price of 3p, the valuation is a very long way short of the peak seen in early 2011, when investors were highly enamoured of Metminco’s potential.

Canaccord Genuity, the company’s broker over here in London, believes the stock can recapture some of the ground lost in the past two-and-a-half years believing explorer to be worth around 19p a share.

It will be a boon for management if Metminco does hit that target as Howe and the team suffered more than most in the down phase having amassed with their own cash an 11.18 per cent stake.

'We have felt the pain and have every reason to want Metminco to succeed,' he said.Metminco at a Glance